


Keep Your Figure In The Frame

by artificialmay



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Art Heists, Detectives, F/M, also it is glaringly obvious i know zero about police, cat burgular, i try to write banter, marinette and alya are like nick and warrick bc they're the dream team, museum thefts, this is fully self indulgent csi crossover tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 13:16:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14916069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artificialmay/pseuds/artificialmay
Summary: Marinette is Paris’ best detective - better known as Agent Ladybug, and the latest series of break ins and thefts throughout Paris is not going unnoticed by her. But is it possible to apprehend a criminal when your heart’s not in the right place?





	Keep Your Figure In The Frame

**Author's Note:**

> Ladies and gentlemen I present my first ever Miraculous fic! Title is from an amazingly beautiful song called Rorschach by Typhoon. This first part hasn’t been edited yet, but as soon as I get it back from my beta I’ll update it I’m just impatient for people to see it lmao. Lmk what you think!

Marinette Dupain-Cheng had only been in the business for a scant four years. Four years since she’d graduated from the police academy on the day of her twenty first birthday. Through months as a beat cop she’d worked tirelessly to become one of the Parisian Police Department’s top detectives. Known to the public as simply Agent Ladybug, she was often hailed as the savior of Paris. A savior who, at the current moment, was sprinting down a dull beige corridor, simultaneously trying to dab half a spilled peppermint mocha off her white blouse and juggle a tray of coffees, and the traitorous, now half full drink. She knew Juleka wouldn’t be happy at the near empty cup but Marinette supposed that was what you got for ordering a winter drink in the middle of spring.

Passing through a sticky blue door into the main bullpen for the Special Crimes Unit she slowed so fast you could almost see the skid marks her pink converse left on the floor. She’d always been nagged by Alya and Sabrina and Max, and well, everyone who’d worked with her that she should ditch the pastel shoes in favour of something a little more mature, but everyday, Marinette would arrive on the job in her childhood favourites. Today though, she wished she’d worn something different when the figure that had caused her to abruptly stop swivelled and smiled at her.

Flicking a blonde ponytail over her shoulder, Chloe Bourgeoise, the head of the Art Crimes Division, popped a gum bubble and sneered at Marinette. The two didn’t get along, not since the very first day in police academy. While Marinette couldn’t argue Chloe was an efficient worker who had ruthlessly slashed crime rates in well to do areas and uncovered a major trafficking ring, she had her reservations about Chloe’s often unorthodox methods; the blonde was no stranger to intimidation, blackmail and shamelessly flirting with criminals. 

“What are you doing here?” Marinette bluntly asked. Chloe’s eyes flicked over Marinette, and Marinette was suddenly aware of the wet t-shirt with coffee contest she seemed to be participating in.  
“I actually came here for your help Miss Ladybug,” she said, flashing a perfect set of white teeth at the shorter girl. Marinette was instantly suspicious - the whole department knew that “helping” Chloe usually meant doing her paperwork or her hair.  
“I’m working a new case - and I need the security tapes picked up and on my desk by the end of the day,” she sniffed. “You can be a doll and do that for me Marinette?”  
Marinette perked up, despite the request. “Art theft?” she inquired.  
“La Musee de la Vie Romantique,” Chloe confirmed, eliciting a long, low whistle from Marinette’s coworker.  
“Never heard of it,” said Marinette resolutely. She’d had issues standing up to the blonde when they’d started, but now she refused to take any shit from Chloe; especially when the older girl tried to make her feel uncultured or dumb.  
“It’s this quirky little museum in outer Paris,” said Alya helpfully. “I thought it was closed for refurbishment though.”  
“It has been,” responded Chloe, “so security was low. The only tapes are grainy as shit and even Max can’t make it much better.” She shrugged. “We know it’s at least three people- but that’s not really for you to be worrying about. Wasn’t there a grocery store break-in? Better get Ladybug to the rescue!”  
“No, I want to work this case,” said Marinette, “you know I’m more than qualified for it, hell I should be working lead-”  
Chloe snickered. “Unfortunately for you, I’m running the case. So you can bug off. You’ll pry this case out of my cold dead hands.”  
Marinette clenched her free hand so hard it felt as though her scrappy, bitten nails would pierce the palm of her hand and pop out the other time.  
“So ta-ta Marinette. I’ll see you when you drop off the tapes,” she said airily, before sauntering off, stopping to grab the elbow of the redheaded crime lab specialist Sabrina and say something too quiet for Marinette to hear.

“God I could just kill her,” muttered Marinette, finally banging the coffees down on her desk, where the others grabbed theirs, Juleka frowning at the half full cup, but too polite to question it. “I want that case.”   
“You and me both, Bug,” responded Alya, taking a sip of her latte, the foam at the top leaving a beige line on her upper lip.   
“But anyway here’s the file for the supermarket robbery,” she smiled sympathetically at Marinette, who buried her head in her elbows. “Basically no cash was touched but a bunch of candy, soda and flowers were stolen.”  
Marinette frowned. “Flowers and junk food; that’s an odd combination.”  
“It gets weirder,” laughed Alya. “Two bottles of white wine were also stolen. There’s no security since the manager was too cheap to actually get a decent security cameras, so there’s just a ton of fakes.”  
Shaking her head, Marinette opened the file - there wasn’t much in there. Reviewing the photos of the crime scene, she put the end of a pen between her teeth.  
“This seems pretty open and shut, but there’s some things I can’t place,” she said to the other detective. “Smashing a window with a brick and stealing chocolate bars feels like a very juvie way to rob a convenience store, but then why take a bouquet of flowers? And why white wine? If you’re underage and looking to steal alcohol, I feel like that’s not the first thing you’d go for.”  
Alya shrugged. “I definitely feel like we’re looking for school kids. It also happened around midnight; just after it closed.”  
“So probably not an employee then. I say we go check it out; try to find out more.”  
Alya smiled. “You got it Bug!”

* * *

The convenience store ended up not offering up much more evidence than had already been found by the crew earlier.  
“All we know is that the flowers stolen were tulips,” groaned Alya, bagging a few stray petals desolately.  
“That’s not the only thing we know now,” said Max, adjusting his glasses from where he leaned on a pole nearby. Max was arguably the best tech guy in the country, if not the whole of Europe. He was fiddling with a small white box.  
“What’s that?” frowned Alya.  
Max grinned. “You know how when you enter some stores there’s an alarm to let people know you’ve come in. This is it.”  
“And?”  
“Well it seems that where the owner couldn’t spring for proper cameras he could afford a fancy alarm system - he was hard of hearing after all. But anyway, this has all the times the chimes went off logged in its database, which when I accessed-”  
“Gives us an exact time of when the crime happened and when they left!” interrupted Marinette. “Max you’re a genius!”  
The shorter boy laughed. “I am. Although we don’t have _a_ window.”  
“How’s that possible?” asked Alya, dusting off her pants and joining the others.  
“We have two windows. Obviously someone came across the trashed storefront and picked up the candy - probably some teen out who wanted a Kit-Kat.”  
Marinette rolled her eyes. “I cannot believe people. Just because something’s there doesn’t mean you need to exploit it. The lack of morals in this city!” She threw her hands up but Max just laughed.  
“A free chocolate bar’s a free chocolate bar,” he said with a shrug. “Anyway, let’s get out of here.”  
Marinette nodded slowly. “Hey, Max, can you pack up this and take it back to the precinct? I have something else I want to check out with Alya.”  
“Sure thing boss,” responded Max, giving a mock salute nd turning back to his car.

 

“Where are we going Marinette?” asked Alya curiously, as Marinette wandered over, squirting hand sanitiser on her hads that had been left powdery by the latex gloves.  
“La Musee de la stylo nomadique!” answered Marinette confidently.  
“Do you perchance mean la vie romantique?” questioned Alya, stifling a laugh.  
“Close enough,” said Marinette, resolutely jangling her keys in her hand.

* * *

 

“We shouldn’t be here Marinette,” whispered Alya, “Chloe’s going to kill us if she finds out.”  
“Then don’t let her find out,” shot back Marinette. “Don’t leave any DNA and don’t contaminate the crime scene.”  
“How are we going to do that Marinette?” grumbled the redhead.  
“Bingo!” whispered Marinette loudly, ignoring Alya’s complaints. Alya looked over at her friend, who was holding up an orange flower petal in her gloved hand, and grinning maniacally.  
“You found some flower petals. Congratulations Marinette, what a scintillating discovery to make as we  _ crawl through a garden bed,”  _ Alya responded, her tone dripping with sharpened sarcasm.  
Marinette just looked at her as though she was dumb.  
“These are tulip petals,” responded Marinette, breathless from the high of her find.  
“And?” questioned Alya tentatively. Marinette just gestured to their surroundings, and Alya took a moment before the realisation hit her, and she snapped her head to meet Marinette’s shining eyes with an equalled amount of enthusiasm.  
“There’s no tulips anywhere in this garden bed.” She paused.

“So where did they come from?” the two whispered in unison.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hehehe I love Max so much he will be featured a lot in this fic. Also can you tell everything I know about forensics is gleaned from Crime Scene Investigation? Anyways lmk what you think x


End file.
